Belgium

Creative Commons is working with CRID, Centre de Recherches Informatique et Droit / Centre for Research on Computer Law, University of Namur to create Belgium jurisdiction-specific licenses from the generic Creative Commons licenses.

More about CRID

Founded in 1979 by Prof. Yves Poullet, the CRID, linked to the University of Namur, is a research centre dedicated to computer law and information law. The Objective of the CRID is to foster the legal thinking in the field of cyberlaw and to create awareness of the legal and social issues engendered by the use of new technologies.
35 researchers are currently working on a broad range of issues, from IPR, privacy, fundamental rights to e-commerce, telecommunications law, use of technologies in the medical sector, computer crime and contract law.
The IPR Department, headed by Severine Dusollier, has namely worked on copyright on the Internet, domain names, software patentability, databases, IPR rights in research outcome, P2P, DRM, and so one. One of the key issue dealt with the IPR Department is the safeguarding of the balance of copyright between rights of the authors and freedoms of the users. It has resulted in thourough research in the field of the exceptions to copyright (fair use), DRM regulations and copyleft and open source.
The CRID has undertaken numerous research projects and studies commissioned namely by the European Commission, UNESCO, Council of Europe, WIPO, Belgian government, diverse national agencies and private companies. It also hosts a important library specialised in computer and cyberlaw. The research carried out at CRID nourishes several teaching courses at the University of Namur and namely a post-graduate program in Law and Management of Technologies of Information and Communication.

Acknowledgements

CC Belgium would like to thank Prof. Alain Strowel (University of St-Louis, Brussels) for his assistance and Pascal Callant for his former role as Public Project Lead. The team is indebted to Philippe Laurent and Loïc Bodson from IPR department and CRID for their support and legal expertise. The Dutch version was prepared by Mélanie Carly, researcher at CIR (Centrum voor Intellectuele Rechten), University of Leuven.